Follow this link to my BLOCKBUSTER STORY of how Brett Kimberlin, a convicted terrorist and perjurer, attempted to frame me for a crime, and then got me arrested for blogging when I exposed that misconduct to the world. That sounds like an incredible claim, but I provide primary documents and video evidence proving that he did this. And if you are moved by this story to provide a little help to myself and other victims of Mr. Kimberlin’s intimidation, such as Robert Stacy McCain, you can donate at the PayPal buttons on the right. And I thank everyone who has done so, and will do so.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Mona Eltahawy Doubles Down: It Was Civil Disobedience!

Update: Thanks to Ace for the link. And we have more on this controversy, here. It has not been a good night for Freedom of Expression.

So in follow up to my post
last night (I even got a Twitchalanche! Cool!), I had some fun today poking at Ms.
Eltahawy on twitter, asking her if it is okay to deface a mosque without the
owner’s permission, whether one could spray paint the great pyramids and call
that speech, even asking kind of rudely:

Or how about this?
Can I spray paint "anti-free-speech fascist" on your car without your
permission? @monaeltahawy
—
Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) September 27,
2012

No answer to that (and of course the answer is "no"). And then eventually I guess she started
figuring out that what she did was actually kind of illegal and kind of
fascist. She is using private violence
to silence speech she doesn’t like, to harm property that didn’t belong to her.

So she fell back to civil
disobedience!

Some New Yorkers
have called 311 to complain about the racist ad, some engaged in civil
disobedience. Find your way to say #FuckRacism
—
Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) September 27,
2012

Well, let’s crack open our copy
of Dr. King’s letter from a Birmingham Jail, something I always knew well, but
has been increasingly relevant in my life.
As I noted before,
when Dr. King decided to go to jail in Birmingham, he was faced with a
restriction on his freedom of speech. A
local law required him to get a parade ordinance before protesting, which is
not itself unjust, but Bull Connor made it clear that there was no way they
would be allowed to get such a permit, thus the injustice. This law was later reinforced with a court
order telling them essentially not to break this law. So Dr. King then peacefully protested racial
segregation and was arrested for that speech.
When he wrote his famous letter, he made it clear that one could only
disobey an unjust law.

In Dr. King’s case that seems
reasonably applied. I mean technically, the
law wasn’t unjust in the way it was written, but it was being applied unjustly,
but I think people can consider that a reasonable application of his principle.

But what is the unjust law
here? The law against defacing property? The law against graffiti? Because that is what she is being charged
with violating. I asked her this
question:

You are claiming
civil disobedience now? okay what unjust law did you refuse to obey? are
anti-graffiti laws unjust? @monaeltahawy
—
Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) September 27,
2012

Oddly she has chosen not to
answer me.

However, as much as she wants to
hammer this square peg into the round hole of the Civil Rights Movement and
declare that she has a dream and to sing We
Shall Overcome, there is another historical precedent that this fits more
neatly. Now, I am not suggesting that
Ms. Eltahawy and her compatriots share all the features of the Brownshirts, but
the Brownshirts were after all people who used private violence to silence the
opposition. And isn’t that precisely
what is happening here?

Meanwhile some of her supporters
spoke up in her defense, explaining to me that this was okay because she was
acting against hate speech. This is a
reasonably representative example:

@aaronworthing
It wasn't a flag, was it? Look, make this abt hate speech. It was a poster and
she went to jail for it.
— I-AM* (@politaire) September 27,
2012

Well, first off, contrary to
popular Democratic myth, you can’t ban “hate speech,” however vile. See, e.g. R.A.V.
v. St. Paul (dealing with cross burning, but see Virginia
v. Black where cross burning was banned as a form of threat).

And second, is this really a
precedent Muslims want to set? Because there
are more than a few Americans who think Islam is a hateful religion. That is not my view, but it is a common view. So if it was ever established that hate
speech could be banned, Muslims might find their very faith banned.

And at the same time, as often is
the case, claims of bigotry are often flung by people who reveal themselves to
be bigots.

The irony of course is that this
is self-hate. I don’t know if Pamela
Geller is intentionally stirring up this storm to get people to reveal their
true nature, just as the civil rights movement was calculated to bring racist
violence out into the open. But it seems
to be having this effect.

---------------------------------------

My wife and I have lost our jobs
due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an
attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up
to ten years. I know that claim sounds
fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these
claims using documentary and video evidence.
If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin
accountable, please hit the Blogger’s Defense Team button on the right. And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing,
mostly for snark and site updates. And
you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent
Historyhere.
And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

---------------------------------------

Disclaimer:

I have accused some people,
particularly Brett Kimberlin, of
reprehensible conduct. In some cases, the conduct is even
criminal. In all cases, the only justice I want is through the
appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system. I do not want to see vigilante violence
against any person or any threat of such violence. This kind of conduct is not only morally
wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett
Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him. Do not call him. Do not write him a letter. Do not write him an email. Do not text-message him. Do not engage in any kind of directed
communication. I say this in part
because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want
that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on
his property. Don’t sneak around and try
to photograph him. Frankly try not to
even be within his field of vision. Your
behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to
mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his
organizations, either. And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is
that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with
contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report. And even then if he tells you to stop
contacting him, obey that request. That
this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that
a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something
else. In my heart of hearts, I don’t
believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above. But if any of you have, stop it, and if you
haven’t don’t start.

About Me

Just a regular, sort of cranky moderately conservative lawyer, living in the greater Washington, D.C. and ruminating on law, life and the local spectator sport known as politics.
Btw, if you want to email me, write to edmd5.20.10 [at] gmail.com. I assume by now you understand that you are supposed to use one of those @ symbols for "[at]."